Amy Shen's Biography

Amy Shen,
Professor,
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Amy Shen is a professor in Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan (https://groups.oist.jp/mbnu). She was a faculty member at Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at University of Washington before moving to Japan in 2014. Amy's research is focused on fluid manipulations at small length scales, with applications in micro/nanofluidics and biosensors. Some of her recent work include micro/nanofluidic based immunoassays, novel micromixing phenomena, and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors for lab-on-a-chip devices. Amy is an honor member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Tau Sigma. Amy received Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in 2003 and the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award in 2007. Amy was also a Fulbright Scholar in 2013.

Gold nanostructures are a highly attractive class of materials with
unique electrochemical and optical sensing properties. Recent
developments have greatly improved the sensitivity of optical sensors
based on metal nanostructured arrays. We introduce the localized surface
plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors and describe how its exquisite
sensitivity to size, shape and environment can be harnessed to detect
molecular binding events. We then describe recent progress in three
areas representing the most significant challenges: integration of LSPR
with complementary electrochemical techniques, long term live-cell
biosensing and practical development of sensors and instrumentation for
routine use and high-throughput detection. As an example we will
demonstrate a novel refractive index and charge sensitive device
integrated with nanoplasmonic islands to develop
nano-metal-insulator-semiconductor (nMIS) junctions. The developed
sensor facilitates simultaneous detection of charge and mass changes on
the nanoislands due to biomolecule binding. A brief insight on
microcontact printing to functionalize proteins on nanoplasmonic sensors
will also be discussed. The developed nanosensors can readily be
adopted for multiplexed and high throughput label-free immunoassay
systems, further driving innovations in biomedical and healthcare
research.